are on trackforelectionsin2014. i want to mention another thing that was going on at this iiss conference i attended in bahrain. foreign ministers from egypt, qatar, the u.s. secretary of defense chuck hagel, they were talking about u.s. realignment, the realignment of the u.s. in the region. what that means for the gcc countries. as they look to shore up countries with trouble like egypt, the 15 to $20 billion they've invested, they're going to look to broaden their scope in terms of who they're going to be investing in and trying to make sure the gcc is a strong force in the region. >> we'll see what that does for investment attitudes. for now, hadley, thank you so much indeed for that. >>> we'll bring our attention to bio fuels. it could be set to rise after the eu canceled a vote. in october they called for these types of bio fuels to be restricted because of concerns it could lead to food shortages. joining us is kevin mckinney. thanks for joining us. big difference of opinion between the european council and the european commission. why? >> the three original objectives for bio fuels,

way and thinking about re-election. that's not going to be repeated. the emerging markets are in difficulties, as i say, and the result is that german exports at the moment are up from just before the crisis because of exports to emerging markets. so the german export machine is now having difficulties but the emerging markets are in difficulties. >> charles will pick up on this point in just a bit. charles dumas, the chairman of lombard street is staying with us. this is how we're shaping up across european markets this morning. a bit of a mix between the red and the green, but on balance, the gainers have it. we're up about 0.3% on the stoxx europe 600. the german market has been one of the better performers this morning. still a gap to close as we close out the month of november. but nonetheless, the move has been a push higher on the top performance has been the likes of infineon. as we move on to some of the other markets, zurich, we've got some selling in shividon. nestle is under pressure. across the board on balance, you can see on these indices, the xetra dax 0.5%

looks to make gains inkeyelections. we'llbe in dehli in just over half an hour. >>> and move over, detroit. tensions are moving to other regions drowning in debt, including puerto rico. what it could mean. if you've got any thoughts or comments about anything we're talking about today, e-mail us, worldwide@cnbc.com. the ecb today will be presenting new growth and inflation forecasts alongside the announcement of its latest policy decision. the central bank said it expected a slight rise in inflation in 2014 and '15 and predicated a rise in in inflation across the upper row zone next year. annette is with us now. they cut rates last month. the euro hasn't weakened. we had sharp divergence between germany and france. what do they do now? >> that's a good question, actually, probably. today they won't do anything. we might see more moving towards potential further easing next year. as well, of course, that wouldn't be their first agenda to weaken the euro a little bit towards the dollar. they would never admit that. but it would actually help around the periphery of the eurozone. as

anelectioninspring 2015. >> there's always the risk, but if you're looking at a better housing market, better mortgage availability, perhaps a eurozone recovery and stronger growth out in the u.s., you're looking at a number of drivers which should, if anything, gain momentum over the next year, year and a half. if i were the chancellor, i wouldn't want to delay the recovery anymore. i'd want that good news story to filter through in terms of the broader economy but also allow households perhaps more time for their own financial improvements to become more receptable. >> lending was up 5.8 billion. participants made efforts down to 5.5 billion during the third quarter. whatever those figures say. the evidence is actually for lenders having less and less of an impact in terms of what the banks were doing. what does the -- what discussions now at the bank this thursday hinge around? clearly the strength of this recovery? as long as we don't get any average meaningful earnings inflation, actually, will they say it doesn't matter if we trigger -- if we go through the threshold -- they don

the economy is going to do this year and next ahead oftheelection. >>yeah. i think the likelihood is that the economy will continue to grow at a 2% to 2.5% late next year. that's decent, but it's not stellar. given all they have said about reducing the deficit over the next few years, it leaves room for cutting taxes. i think what the uk needs is a rebalancing towards investment and exports. the government realizes this and i think as a consequence it's unlikely to do things to throw additional fuel on the fire of consumption. >> do you think the government is doing enough? are you expecting any measures, say, on planning tomorrow from the troika? would that have helped? we had construction pmis this week very strong, rising like a phoenix out of the ashes. but many suppliers saying the supply side of that market is still very, very underperforming. >> yeah. i mean, when it comes to the supply side of the uk housing market, it really is down to things like change, having a look at the green belt legislation, trying to, you know, incentivize local authorities to watch the yen gauge

guarantee him success intheelections. fromhis perspective, that was going to be russia particularly as the ukraine required financial support which the eu seems unlikely willing to provide. >> if they had been willing to provide that, would the situation have been different? >> potentially. however, russia does hold a number of cards. obviously, ukraine is still very dependent on gas imports from russia and the gas price would have been a crucial consideration in all of this. however, it's clear from what has happened yanukovych miscalculated the extent to which the population is in favor of joining us moving towards the eu. we just got this note coming out from the ukraine finance minister saying can ikiev will back its debt on time. what do you make of that? >> that's clearly a signal to russia that the ukraine is still on side and possibly able to appeal to russia to come forth with distance. at this point, yanukovych has to show concrete evidence of russian support. >> are these protests go to go continue? and what are the implications? >> the protests are likely to continue. sh